News & facts, re-imagined for kids

Kanga Had a Little Roo

Image Credit: Flickr User loop_oh, via CC

Did you guess what we are talking about? Yes Indeed! It is Mr. Kangaroo! Mr. Kangaroo is the largest marsupial in the world. Marsupialsare a group of mammals that give birth to their young at an early stage of their development. Therefore, after their birth, the young one crawls up a pouch located on the mother’s abdomen. The baby stays inside the pouch until it is big enough to be alone in the outside world. The other marsupials are Tasmanian devil, numbats, bandicoots, wombats, marsupial moles, pygmy possums, koalas, kangaroos and wallabies.

Image Credit: Flickr User jenny-bee, via CC

There is a strange story how Kangaroos came to be.There was once a witch who loved deer. One day she caught a human who was hunting a deer. She cursed him that all people in his family will turn into a strange someone that has a head like a deer and will hop like a frog. So you see, kangaroos have a head like a deer and legs that do not move apart making them the largest animals that hop.

A male kangaroo is a buck and a female kangaroo is a doe. Kangaroo’s baby is called a joey. It just looks like a pink hairless worm at birth. After that it stays in the pouch for almost 9 months. Kangaroos usually have one joey each year. Most kangaroos move about at night hunting for food. They are herbivores. This makes them a nocturnal mammal. Since they are up in the night, kangaroos spend the day lazing around in the shade.

Another interesting thing about kangaroos is that they cannot walk backwards. They hop at a very high speed and their tail helps with the balance. Their tiny forelimbs have no power, but powerful hind legs with their long sharp toenails are a dangerous weapon.